Profound religious experience usually predisposes a corresponding experience in the natural order. A religious father experience presupposes a father experience in the natural order. A religious mother experience usually presupposes a a corresponding experience in the natural order. The same hold good for love of brothers or sisters.
The deeper reason for this normal, general law is the law of world government which can be traced back to the common denomninator: God rules the world according to the law of organic transference and transmission.
When we have reached the summit of this convention*, we will take the opportunity to come back to this once more. Here it suffices to know to some degree what is implied. God transfers to secondary causes --in our case our parents -- a part of his attributes: something of His omnipotence, His love, His wisdom. While transferring these to the parents he is thinking of the child. Hence, the law of organic transference. In educating themselves and others, humans should take the same law as their guideline; they too should apply the law of organic transference. The reverance, love, and obedience we owe ultimately to God, we should transfer to secondary causes, to our parents or to authorities similar in nature. It is, however, a law of organic transference, ie. while loving father, mother, and siblings, we simultaneously love God and our Blessed Mother. That is a matter of course; it is the fundamental Catholic perspective. With this we have touched upon a basic law; countless times during this convention we will take a closer look at it.
Excerpts from "Forming the New Person" p. 32. Printed by Schoenstatt Editions 2003. Translated from the German by Milagros Vega. Edited and reviewed by Jonathan Neihaus.
*The convention he is talking about is pedagogical conference he was speaking at on Oct. 2-5, 1951. This book is based on a transcipt of those talks.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Organic vs. Mechanistic Thinking
Somewhere a deeply religious girl who belonged at one time to a Catholic youth organization, heard the Marian song "Beautiful and Magnificent Lady, I want to give you all I have, my life and blood as well." She felt she could never sing such a song, for she could only abandon herself to God, not to people, and consequently, not to our Lady either.
True surrender to the Blessed Virgin is unaquainted with this mechanistic thinking., and does not seperate her, the secondary cause, from the first cause, God. It is obvious that, seperated from God, a creature can not arouse my total surrender. If I give myself to Our Lady, or another creature, I can only do so in the context of their relatedness to God.
In this connection I remind you of little St. Therese. She was crazy about her father because, enraptured, she beheld in the image of her father the image of God. Precisely in giving herself to her natural father, she gave herself in organic totality to Father God.
The above mentioned girl went on with her complaint, "I cannot pray the prayer My Queen, my Mother. I can only give myself totally to God. Again, this way of looking at things is a fruit of mechanistic thinking*.
Those who overlook the subordinate regions of the secondary causes and of the want to fly directly to the final cause, harm not only the organism of sound life. In the course of time they also deprive themselves of what secures access to the higher order. If I give myself directly and exclusively to the spiritual God, I must fear that sooner or later the thought of God will evaporate to such an extent that, in the end, I may even be straining after a certain godlessness. If the thought of God is not filled with life, it does not create life. Since God made the subordinate regions a certain doorway to the superior regions, we have to say a firm yes, to the wishes, to the orders of God.
... Fr. Kentenich gives further examples of the mechanistic thinking afflicting those within the Church, priests etc ...
Aren't such things crimes committed against our people? We tear everything apart and are surprised that a religious surge of life is no longer possible. The subordinate regions are not only a certain preperation but also a lasting protection for the superior regions ... These are serious matters! We tear life to shreds and then complain that our people are not receptive anymore to religious values. We have become religious intellectualists and cannot overcome mechanistic thinking. Our people do not have that problem, but we do, and we make it a problem. We misuse our authority and make the sound thinking of our people unsound. We waste time and stifle life. Isn't it time to find our way back to organic thinking, living and loving?
Excerpts from "Forming the New Person" pp. 52-58. Printed by Schoenstatt Editions 2003. Translated from the German by Milagros Vega. Edited and reviewed by Jonathan Neihaus.
*Mechanistic thinking- earlier in the chapter Fr. Kentenich begins to define mechanistic thinking. "What is mechanistic thinking? It is neither organic or sound because it splits human nature. It seperated the mind, will, and heart from eachother. Sound thinking is organic, symbolic, centered, and integral ... All mechanistic thinking is abnormal, unsound thinking ... With a view to the subject, the bearer of the intellectual faculty, we speak of seperatistic thinking when the mind breaks away from the will and the heart... As regards the object what is the effect of this mechanistic thinking. It seperates ideas from life, the first cause from secondary causes, and life processes in their relation to each other."
True surrender to the Blessed Virgin is unaquainted with this mechanistic thinking., and does not seperate her, the secondary cause, from the first cause, God. It is obvious that, seperated from God, a creature can not arouse my total surrender. If I give myself to Our Lady, or another creature, I can only do so in the context of their relatedness to God.
In this connection I remind you of little St. Therese. She was crazy about her father because, enraptured, she beheld in the image of her father the image of God. Precisely in giving herself to her natural father, she gave herself in organic totality to Father God.
The above mentioned girl went on with her complaint, "I cannot pray the prayer My Queen, my Mother. I can only give myself totally to God. Again, this way of looking at things is a fruit of mechanistic thinking*.
Those who overlook the subordinate regions of the secondary causes and of the want to fly directly to the final cause, harm not only the organism of sound life. In the course of time they also deprive themselves of what secures access to the higher order. If I give myself directly and exclusively to the spiritual God, I must fear that sooner or later the thought of God will evaporate to such an extent that, in the end, I may even be straining after a certain godlessness. If the thought of God is not filled with life, it does not create life. Since God made the subordinate regions a certain doorway to the superior regions, we have to say a firm yes, to the wishes, to the orders of God.
... Fr. Kentenich gives further examples of the mechanistic thinking afflicting those within the Church, priests etc ...
Aren't such things crimes committed against our people? We tear everything apart and are surprised that a religious surge of life is no longer possible. The subordinate regions are not only a certain preperation but also a lasting protection for the superior regions ... These are serious matters! We tear life to shreds and then complain that our people are not receptive anymore to religious values. We have become religious intellectualists and cannot overcome mechanistic thinking. Our people do not have that problem, but we do, and we make it a problem. We misuse our authority and make the sound thinking of our people unsound. We waste time and stifle life. Isn't it time to find our way back to organic thinking, living and loving?
Excerpts from "Forming the New Person" pp. 52-58. Printed by Schoenstatt Editions 2003. Translated from the German by Milagros Vega. Edited and reviewed by Jonathan Neihaus.
*Mechanistic thinking- earlier in the chapter Fr. Kentenich begins to define mechanistic thinking. "What is mechanistic thinking? It is neither organic or sound because it splits human nature. It seperated the mind, will, and heart from eachother. Sound thinking is organic, symbolic, centered, and integral ... All mechanistic thinking is abnormal, unsound thinking ... With a view to the subject, the bearer of the intellectual faculty, we speak of seperatistic thinking when the mind breaks away from the will and the heart... As regards the object what is the effect of this mechanistic thinking. It seperates ideas from life, the first cause from secondary causes, and life processes in their relation to each other."
Saturday, January 19, 2008
A Nazareth Father
Since we are living in a fatherless time, we are also living in a Godless time in which authority is being lost. That is why we may say so clearly that fatherly authority, as a reflection of God's authority, is fundamental to the family. Of course, it is a fatherly authority that has to be recognized by the mother, and that must time and again be re-conquered by the father. How is he to conquer it? Through creative fatherly activity, through serving his wife and children selflessly.
If we want to be a Nazareth family, we have to again become aware of the importance of fatherly authority. It should have a central place in the whole of family life. Therefore it would not be right if a father were to say "I shall work hard to earn a living, to do well at work, and also to be politically active, but at home I shall leave the responsibility to the mother. When I am at home, the children should leave me in peace. I want to be able to relax."
No, the main sphere of my fatherly activity --despite all I do at work, despite the need to earn money, depite political activities --must always be my family. I am the center of my family and have a say in the education of my children. Otherwise I am nothing else than the breadwinner, I am not the father. Then I do not, so to say, 'adopt' my children time and again, that is, I do not beget my children once more, but merely see to it that they have enough to eat. The depths of the child remain untouched by fatherly authority. Then later in life the child will be unable to stand his or her ground.
Excerpt from "The Family at the Service of Life" pp. 30-31. Printed by St. Paul's Press in 2001. Translated from the German by Mary Cole.
If we want to be a Nazareth family, we have to again become aware of the importance of fatherly authority. It should have a central place in the whole of family life. Therefore it would not be right if a father were to say "I shall work hard to earn a living, to do well at work, and also to be politically active, but at home I shall leave the responsibility to the mother. When I am at home, the children should leave me in peace. I want to be able to relax."
No, the main sphere of my fatherly activity --despite all I do at work, despite the need to earn money, depite political activities --must always be my family. I am the center of my family and have a say in the education of my children. Otherwise I am nothing else than the breadwinner, I am not the father. Then I do not, so to say, 'adopt' my children time and again, that is, I do not beget my children once more, but merely see to it that they have enough to eat. The depths of the child remain untouched by fatherly authority. Then later in life the child will be unable to stand his or her ground.
Excerpt from "The Family at the Service of Life" pp. 30-31. Printed by St. Paul's Press in 2001. Translated from the German by Mary Cole.
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